When Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Stansfield called for a break in the proceedings, I felt pretty good about my chances. I was finally given the opportunity to cross examine the despicable liar, WJJ Hoge, and actually caught him in mid-lie on stand. His horrid, evil, faux-Democrat of a lawyer, Zoa Barnes, tried to whip one past the judge as well, but I intercepted it.
“We’re here for a hearing on extending the peace order and contempt,” she told the judge who sat there smiling at her in rapt attention. I waited until she was finished and said, “Your honor, I need to correct Ms. Barnes,” I said. “The summons I received said nothing about a contempt hearing,I’m only here for a hearing on the extension.” The judge immediately shot down the idea of the contempt hearing and said he was hearing the extension only.
Good old Zoa got to go first, as is procedure. She called Hoggy to the stand presented evidence of Tweets I had sent using the @wjjhoge “at mention.” She presented evidence, which I objected to, that PINGBACKS sent from a WordPress blog like this, if I happened to link to something Hoge wrote on HIS blog, is “direct contact” from me. Hoge lied about receiving some “obscene” photoshopped images via Twitter. I challenged that, and it turns out they were on my blog, not Twitter.
I grilled Hoggy for about an hour. His demeanor changed as the questioning proceeded. He started out all smug and confident but by the time I was done, he was flustered and searching for words to explain why some of my tweets about him are OK and others are not.
I feel I successfully established what the Attorney General (who the Judge called, “Just Another Lawyer”), the legislature (the judge said he didn’t much care what the legislature’s stance on the issue was), and what Twitter and other social media experts, including Hoge’s own friends have said about Twitter being a BROADCAST platform, not a CONVERSATION program. Hoggy didn’t rebut a word of it.
We took our break, and I was at least grateful that I had the opportunity to speak this time. When we were called back in about a half hour later, Zoa attacked me for daring to use the “@” symbol in my Tweets, even though in his testimony, Hoggy said that some “at mentions” might be harassment, some might not be, some might be contact, some might not be. I asked him during my cross examination what I had to do to walk the straight and narrow and not go astray, and he just kept repeating, “stop contacting you.” “But I am NOT contacting you,” I kept establishing. “I am writing ABOUT you. I am not writing TO you.” Given the fact that he was using blog entries, pingbacks and Twitter to establish his “course of conduct” argument, I had to ask if I needed to consider Hoggy’s “feelings” every time I write a private note to myself or a blog entry to my readers. Turns out, the answer is “yes.”
The Wicked Witch of Westminster got one more shot. She said that if I so much as LOOKED at the “@” key on my computer while tweeting about Hoggy, she would be back with contempt charges. “And this time, we will be asking for jail time,” she snarled, pointing a green, crooked finger at me. This is a direct quote.
“And I don’t care about his MS, or PD, or whatever it is he SAYS he has. We will ask for JAIL time!”
I had one more chance to speak. I told the judge that this is all a vicious circle that he, as the person who granted this miscarriage of justice in the first place, had the opportunity to stop once and for all. “We’ve seen how Hoge acts when he wins,” I said, reminding the judge about the constant hectoring from Hoggy, the attempts to follow my timeline, etc.” I asked the judge to “make it stop.”
He sat back in his chair, said he knows nothing about Twitter, he doesn’t even have a cell phone. But the naughty pictures (which the peace order did not forbid), the “at mentions” (which the peace order did not forbid) were sufficient evidence that I would keep violating the peace order I hadn’t violated so he extended it for six months. Hoggy put the leash on his lawyer’s collar and they trotted from the courtroom, where he had to stop her from attempting to “mark” various points of the courtroom as her property. The Judge retired from the chamber, looking embarrassed by the ruling he had just made. And I realized there would be no justice.
Knowing what the outcome would be, I decided to go ahead at at least attempt to file perjury and harassment charges against Hoggy in the court commissioner’s office. I was told that if probable cause was found, there would be a notice on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search website by last night. It’s just after noon the next day. Not a word. And this is the same court commissioner who approved 366 charges of my magically contacting Hoggy, including one charge of my hijacking a computer in Brazil and using it to harass Hoggy. I provided indisputable proof that Hoge had lied under oath. Nothing.
So, I will more than likely appeal yesterday’s ruling to the Court of Special Appeals, arguing that the judge ignored the evidence of my innocence and, to my eyes, was reluctant in making a ruling that he didn’t want to make but had to make — for some reason. It was clear he was not happy with extending Hoggy’s peace order, especially after I reminded him that Peace Orders EXIST to protect actual victims from actual bad people, not to give someone the upper hand in a Twitter Flame War.
So now, we will have to wait and see what the State’s Attorney wants to do with the 353 charges against me on his desk.
By the way, this is on my “post page” as I type this.
Screen Shot 2013-12-10 at 12.12.31 PMIf I were to click any of those “hogewash” links to give you, the reader, additional context or an opportunity to see the other side of the story, WordPress would send a “pingback” to Hoge. And I would be arrested.
Because, that would be ME, contacting HOGGY!
Because that’s the law in Carroll County.